tehri dam - rock and earth-fill embankment dam (india)

The Tehri dam is the highest dam in India and one of the highest in the world.­

It is hard to imagine that right there, on this photo, deep under the lake, just at the bottom on the dam, there is a submerged city (Tehri, now called "Old Tehri") that was the provincial capital, with a population of about 25,000.­ The people from Old Tehri have been relocated to New Tehri, a planned city built on the mountain above the dam.­

The Tehri Reservoir (the lake on the left) now fills-up a large part of the Bhagirathi valley, one of the headstreams of the Ganges.­

The Tehri Dam was (and still is) a very controversial project, as it flooded two valleys resulting in the destruction of numerous villages and a town (Tehri), all now submerged, and forced the relocation of about 100,000 people.­